Have you ever been in a spot with your mountain bike where you want your cake and you want to eat it too? That's where I live 24/7. I want a light bike that likes to party too. Stiff strong rims that are like feathers. Pedals that I can unclip whenever I want, but don't ever let me out accidentally. Well, with the Maxxis Minion DHF 3C EXO casing and the DHR II Dual Compound EXO casing (29x2.3), you get everything you want.

I live in southern Utah where the riding is unforgiving, lots of square edges and jagged rocks over flat dirt. Plenty of penalty for washing out, and the general advice for tourists is to run tire pressure at an unforgiving 35 PSI to save your new carbon rims and tire sidewalls. After spending a few lifetimes on the Maxxis website, I ordered some from Worldwide Cyclery. I received an awesome deal and got exactly what I wanted.

These guys stick to a lot of stuff they shouldn't, especially in the 3c DHF. I run pressure at about 28/30 psi(at 250lb rider weight!) and my carbon wheels are new as the day they were unboxed. Not a single sidewall issue. These are bombproof. The DHR II should be a slow slogging tire, but at WELL under 900 grams, it actually picks up as much speed as I dare throw at it. On the uphill, every pedal stroke is power to the ground, no slipping.

For someone that rides some of the most unforgiving and wearing terrain on tires almost every day, these things ride like glue but aren't slow. I'm pretty sure they physically cannot be torn. If I had to do it again, I would buy two sets so I could put them on my wife's bike too.